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Mente o Naturaleza, o La Vida de Las Plantas - Coccia PDF
Mente o Naturaleza, o La Vida de Las Plantas - Coccia PDF
Mente o Naturaleza, o La Vida de Las Plantas - Coccia PDF
Vol. 1 N 2 (2013)
Mente e
matria ou
a vida das
plantas
Emanuele Coccia
(cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales - Paris)
Tradutora: Nicoletta Cherobin
1. Filosofia da natureza
Salvo raras excees, h sculos a filosofia parou de contemplar
a natureza: o direito de ocupar-se e de falar do mundo das coisas e
dos viventes no humanos cabe exclusivamente a outras disciplinas.
Plantas e animais, fenmenos atmosfricos comuns e extraordinrios,
os elementos e as suas combinaes, as constelaes, os planetas e as
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2. O legado de Darwin
Apesar de estar contida implicitamente na sua obra-prima,
aparecida em primeira edio em 1859, somente no seu The Descent of
Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, aparecido em 1871, que Darwin
expressa-se de maneira manifesta sobre a impossibilidade de separar
o homem do resto do mundo natural. O homem, escreve Darwin,
deriva de alguma forma menos organizada, mais precisamente de um
quadrpede hirsuto, provavelmente arborcola nos seus costumes, um
morador do velho mundo5. Tudo aquilo que se expressa na natureza
4 Uma crtica eficaz dos pressupostos humansticos das cincias humanas e da recusa deles a
dialogar com as cincias da natureza, conduzida sobre outras bases e com outros fins em relao
quela apresentada neste texto, encontra-se no importante livro de Schaeffer (2007). J.-M.
Schaeffer apresenta o paradigma daquilo que chama prometesmo cognitivo ou gnosiolgico,
entendido como uma antropologia filosfica que funda a exceo humana, mesmo a partir de
uma ideia de razo como prpria do homem e faculdade de autoconstruo da humanidade. Mas
a sua reconstruo tende a exagerar o peso da filosofia, considerada como le lieu dlaborations
le plus consquent desta exceo ntica (SCHAEFFER, 2005, p. 190), at fazer coincidir em
parte a histria da filosofia (ou a histria ocidental) com a histria da construo desta croyance
commune. Parece-me, ao contrrio, que se trata de episdios muito circunscritos: a histria da
filosofia, tambm moderna e contempornea, repleta de exemplos de doutrinas anti-humanistas
e de crticas acepo humana. Para outra crtica diviso de natureza e cultura e sua real
eficcia no mundo moderno Cf. tambm os trabalhos j clssicos de Latour (1991 e 1999).
5 By considering the embryological structure of man - the homologies which he presents
with the lower animals - the rudiments which he retains - and the reversions to which he is
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approximately place them in their proper place in the zoological series. We thus learn that man is
descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the
Old World. This creature, if it its whole structure had been examined by a naturalist, wold have
been classed amongst the Quadrumana, as surely as the still more ancient progenitor of the Old
and New World monkeys. The Quadrumana and all the higher mammals are probably derived
from an ancient marsupial animal and this through a long line of diversified forms, from some
amphibian-like creature, and this again from some fish-like animal. In the dim obscurity of the
past we can see that the early progenitor of all the Vertebrata must have been an aquatic animal,
provided with branchiae, with the two sexes united in the same individual, and with the most
important organs of the body (such as the brain and heart) imperfectly or not at all developed.
This animal seems to have been more like the larvae of the existing marine Ascidians than any
other known form. (DARWIN, 1882, p. 609)
6 The close similarity between man and the lower animals in embryonic development,
as well as in innumerable points of structure and constitution both of high and of the most
trifling importance, - the rudiments which he retains and the abnormal reversions to which he
is occasionally liable - are fact which cannot be disputed. They have long been known, but
until recently they told us nothing with respect to the origin of man. Now when viewed by the
light of our knowledge of the whole organic world their meaning is unmistakable. [] The
close resemblance of the embryo of man to that, for instance, of a dog, - the construction of his
skull, limbs and whole frame on the same plan with that of other mammals, independently of
the uses to which the parts may be put - the occasional reappearance of various structures, for
instance of several muscles, which man does not normally possess, but which are common to the
Quadrumana - and a crowd of analogous facts - all point in the plainest manner to the conclusion
that man is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor. (DARWIN, 1882,
p. 606)
7 The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one
of degree and not of kind. We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions
and faculties, such as love, memory, attention, curiosity, imitation, reason etc, of which man
boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the
lower animals. They are also capable of some inherited improvement as we see in the domestic
dog compared with the wolf or jackal (DARWIN, 1882, p. 126). A bibliografia sobre Darwin
enorme. Para uma primeira orientao histrica e bibiliogrfica, veja-se Hodge (2009) e
Ruse (2009). Fundamental pelo enquadramento de Darwin dentro do pensamento biolgico
permanece a obra monumental de Mayr (2003).
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8 We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities,
with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to
other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated
into the movements and constitutions of the solar system - with all these exalted powers - man
still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. (DARWIN, 1882, p. 619)
9 A respeito deste ponto e mais em geral sobre antropologia darwiniana,veja-se Tort (2008 e
1999).
10 Archologists ought to be grateful to worms, as they protect and preserve for an indefinitely
long period every object, not liable to decay, which is dropped on the surface of the land, by
burying it beneath their castings. (DARWIN, 1881, p. 308-309)
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13 Here the long reach of the gene stretches through several ecosystem components, further
than Dawkins ever described. Many of these effects of earthworm niche construction typically
depend on multiple generations, leading only gradually to cumulative improvements in the
soil. It follows that most contemporary earthworms inhabit local selective environments that
have been radically altered by many generations of ancestors. It is likely that some earthworm
phenotypes, such as epidermis structure, or the amount of mucus secreted, co-evolved with
earthworm niche construction over many generations. (LALAND, 2004, p. 320)
14 Sobre isso e quanto segue Cf. Brandon et al. (1996), Laland (2004), Laland et al. (1996,
1999, 2001 e 2004); Lewontin (1982, 1983 e 1985); Odling-Smee (1988); Odling-Smee et al.
(2003); Oyama et al. (2001); Sterelny (2005); Turner (2000).
15
construction. For a number of years my colleagues John Odling-Smee, Marc Feldman and I have
argued that niche construction has a number of important, but hitherto neglected implications for
evolutionary biology and related disciplines. Due recognition of niche construction changes the
evolutionary process from a linear to a cyclical conception of causality. [] Niche construction
is not the exclusive prerogative of large populations, keystone species or clever animals; it is a
fact of life. Organisms across the breadth of all known taxonomic groups construct important
components of their local environments. Niche construction is, after natural selection, a second
major participant in evolution. The properties of environments cause (some of) the properties of
organisms through the action of natural selection, but equally the properties of organisms cause
(some of) the properties of selective environments through niche construction. (LALAND,
2004, p. 316)
16 Sobre cultura animal os estudos nos ltimos anos multiplicaram-se fortemente. Cf. pelo
menos Biro et al., 2003; Boesch, 2003; Bonnie et al., 2006; Byrne, 2006; Hunt et al., 2003;
Laland et al., 2003 e 2009; Odling-Smee et al., 2003; Perry et al., 2003; Rendell et al., 2001;
Sherry et al., 1990; Terkel, 1996; Warner, 1988; Whiten et al., 2007. Uma sntese divulgadora
(mas em outras bases) em Lestel, 2001.
17 Organisms not only acquire genes from their ancestors but also an ecological inheritance,
that is, a legacy of natural selection pressures that have been modified by the niche construction of
their genetic or ecological ancestors. Ecological inheritance does not depend on the presence of
any environmental replicators, but merely on the persistence, between generations, of whatever
physical changes are caused by ancestral organisms in the local selective environments of their
descendants. Thus ecological inheritance more closely resembles the inheritance of territory or
property than it does the inheritance of genes. (LALAND, 2004, p. 316)
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18 Standard evolutionary theory short-changes the active role of organisms in constructing their
environments, generating explanations that are sometimes misleading. Without ancestral niche
construction by many organisms, including earthworms, topsoil would not exist. The ancestors
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of contemporary earthworms must have chosen and partly constructed the soil environments
to which they are now adapted. There are two logically distinct routes to the complementary
match between organisms and their environments. Either organisms can change to suit their
environments, or environments can be changed by organisms to suit themselves. (LALAND,
2004, p. 316)
19 Returning to the earthworms, because these originally aquatic creatures are able to solve
their water - and salt -balance problems through tunnelling, exuding mucus, eliminating calcite,
and dragging leaf litter below ground, that is, through their niche construction, earthworms have
retained the ancestral freshwater kidneys (or nephridia) and have evolved few of the structural
adaptations one would expect to see in an animal living on land. For instance, earthworms
produce the high volumes of urine characteristic of freshwater rather than terrestrial animals.
As a consequence, if high-school students were asked to classify an earthworm using standard
classificatory methods they would probably conclude that the earthworm has no business living
in soil. Earthworms are structurally very poorly adapted to cope with physiological problems
such as water and salt balance on land, and they would seem to belong in a freshwater habitat.
They can only survive in a terrestrial environment by co-opting the soils that they inhabit and
the tunnels they build to serve as accessory kidneys that compensate for their poor structural
adaptation. For instance, by producing well-aggregated soils the worms weaken matric
potentials, and make it easier for them to draw water into their bodies. However, in the process,
earthworms dramatically change their environments. All of this earthworm activity highlights a
problem with the concept of adaptation. In this case it is the soil that does the changing, rather
than the worm, to meet the demands of the worms freshwater physiology. So what is adapting
to what?. (LALAND, 2004, p. 316)
20 Lhomme vient au monde, dpouill de protections naturelles, sans armes et dans la
pauvret, manquant de tout pour satisfaire aux besoins de sa vie: apparemment il mrite plus la
piti que lenvie.Comme armes, il na ni les dfenses des cornes, ni les pointes des ongles, ni
sabots, ni dents, ni aiguillon empoisonn pour donner la mort, tous ces organes, que la plupart
des vivants ont sur eux pour se dfendre des blessures; son corps nest pas non plus recouvert
dune enveloppe de poils (GREGORIO DI NISSA, 2002, p. 100). (O homem vem ao mundo
desprovido de protees naturais, sem armas e na pobreza, faltando-lhe tudo para satisfazer as
necessidades da sua vida: aparentemente, ele merece piedade antes que inveja. Como armas ele
no tem chifres, nem unhas pontiagudas, nem cascos, nem dentes, nem um ferro envenenado
para dar a morte todos esses rgos que a maioria dos viventes possuem para se defender de
ferimentos; o seu corpo tambm no est coberto por um invlucro de pelos. Traduo livre).
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3. O corpo da cultura
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5. Concluso
Toda forma de vida natural e cultural. na mesma relao
com a prpria forma que comea para toda forma de vida a cultura.
Do mesmo modo, na relao prpria forma anatmica, est sempre
em jogo a relao com o mundo. Vida cultural e vida natural no so
dois reinos separados que o homem deve juntar: so o que se produz em
cada ser vivente atravs dos movimentos sempre cruzados do trabalho
anatmico e do ecolgico. No existe, para nenhum vivente, uma vida
anatmica pura, como tampouco existe para o homem uma vida cultural
ou espiritual separada dos corpos. Com uma boutade poder-se-ia dizer
que, se as substncias separadas, os puros intelectos, os anjos da tradio
teolgica no existem, porque tampouco existem corpos simples entre
os viventes. Cada vida a transmisso endossomtica e exossomtica
de imagens.
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Bibliografia
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BOESCH, C. Is culture a golden barrier between human and
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BOLK, Louis. Das Problem der Menschwerdung. Jena: 1926.
BONNIE K.E.; DE WAAL, F.B.M. Affiliation promotes the transmission
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216
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TURNER, J. S. The Extended Organism: The Physiology of AnimalBuilt Structures. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000.
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WARNER, R.R. Traditionality of mating-site preferences in a coral
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